Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 March 1892 — HE. OG. [ARTICLE]

HE. OG.

Be Was a Giant and Had an Iron Bedstead. tho Infamous King “Doubt” Attacks Many Men en Their Dying Beds—Rev. Dr. fslmags'e Sermon. Rev. Dr. Talm age gave another illustration, Sunday, in his sermon at the Brooklyn Tabernaele of his wonderful power of drawing useful, practical lessons from an obscure text, which, to the ordinary mind, seemed incapable of yielding any spiritual edification. The text was,Deut. Ill* 11. “Only Og, king of Bashan, re" mained of the remnant of giants; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? Nine cubits was the length thereof and four cubits was the breadth of it." The story of giants is mixed with myth. William the Conqueror was said te have been of overtowering altitude, but, when, in aftertimes, his tonjb was opened,his bones indicated that he had been physically of only ordinary size. Roland, the hero, was said to have been of astounding stature,but when his sepulcher was examined, his armor was found only large enough to fit an ordinary man. Alexander the Great had helmets and shields es enormous size made and left among the people whom he had conquered, so as to give the impression that he was a giant, although he was rather under than over the usual height of a man. But that in other days and lands there were real giants is authentic. One of the guards of the Duke of Brunswick was eight and a half feet high. In a museum in London is the skeleton of Charles Birne, eight feet four inches in stature. The Emperor Maximin was over eight feet high. Pliny tells of. a giant nine feet high, and two other giants nine and a half feet. So lam not incredulous when I come to my text and find King Og a giant, and the size of his bedstead, turning the cubits of the text into feet —the bedstead of Og, the King, must have been about, thirteen and a half feet lorrgr Judging from that, the giant who occupied it was probly about eleven feet in stature, or nearly twioe the average human size. There was no need of Rabbinical writers trying to account for the presence of this giant, King Og, as they did, by saying that he came down from tho other side of the flood, being tall enough to wade the waters beside Noah’s Ark, or that be rode on the top of the Ark, the passengers inside the Aide daily providing him with food. There was nothing supernatural about him. He was simply a monster in size. Cyrus and Solomon slept on beds of gold, and Sardanapalus had 150 bedsteads of gold burned up with him, but this bedstead of my text was of iron—everything sacrificed for strength to hold this excessive avoirdupois, this Alp of bone and flesh. No wonder this couch was kept as a curiosity at Rabbath, and people went from far and near to see it, just as now people go to museums to behold the armor of the ancients. You sav what a fighter this giant, King Og’ must have been, No doubt of it. I suppose the size o£JbisSwofd and breastplate corresponded to the size of his bedstead, and his stride across ihe battlefield and the full

swing of his arm must have been appalling. With an armed host he comes down to drive back the Israelites, are marching on from Egypt to Canaan. We have no particulars of the battle, but I think the Israelites trembled when they saw this monster of a man moving down to crush them. Alas for the Israelites! Will their troubles never cease? What can men five and a half feet high do against this warrior of eleven feet, and what can short swords, do against a sword whose gleam must have been like a flash of lightning? The battle of Adre opened. Moses and his army met the giant and his army. The Lord of Hosts descended into the fight and the gigantic strides that Og had made when advancing into the battle were surpassed by the gigantic strides with which he retreated. Huzza for triumphant Israel! Sixty fortified cities surrendered to them. A land of indescribable opulence comes into their possession, and all that is left of the giant king is the iron bedstead. ‘‘Nine cubits was the length thereof and fourscubits the breadth of it.” Why did not the Bible give us the sizfe of the giant instead of the size of the bedstead? Why did it not indicate that the man was eleven fget nigh instead of telling us that his couch was thirteen and a half feet long? No doubt among other things it was to teach us that you can judge of a man by his surroundings. Show me a man’s associates, show me a man’s books, show me a man’s home, and I will tell you what he is without your telling me one word about him. You can not only tell a man according to the old adage“ by the company he keeps,” but by the books be reads, by the pictures he admirers, by the church he attends, by the places he visits. Moral giants and moral pigmies,intellectualgiants and intellectual pigmies, physical giants or physical pigmies, may be judged by their surroundings. That man has been thirty years faithful in attendance upon churches and pray-er-meetings and Sunday-schools, and putting himself among intense religious associations. He may have his imperfections, but he is "a very good man. Great is his religious stature. That other man has beeh for thirty years among influences in-

teazel y wocWlv, rod he has shut him seif out from all other influence, and his religious stature is that of a dwarf. No man has ever been or ean be independent of his surroundings, social, intellectual, moral, religious. The Bible indicates the length Of the giant by the length of his bedstead. Let ho man say, “I will be good and yet keep evil surroundings. Let no man say, “I will be faithful as a Christian," and yet consort chiefly with worldlings. You are proposing an everlasting impossibility. When a man departs this life you can tell what has been his influence in a community for good by those who mourn for him, and how sincere and long-continued are the regrets of his taking off. There may be no pomp or obsequies and no pretense at epitapheology, but you ean tell how high he was in consecration, and how high in usefulness by how long is his shadow when he comes to lie down. What is true of individuals is true of cities and nations. Show me the and T will tell you the intelligence of its people. Show me its gallery of paintingQand sculpture, and I will tell you the artistic advancement of its citizens. Show me its churches, and I will tell you the moral and religious status of the place. From the feet that Og’s bedstead was thirteen and a half feet long, I conclude the giant himself was about eleven feet high. But let no man by this thought be induced to surrender to unfavorable environments. A man can make his own bedstead. Chantery and Hugh Miller were born stone-masons, but the one became an immortal sculptor and the other a Christian scientist whose name will never die. Turner the painter, in whose name John Rusktn expended the greatest genius of his life, was the son of a barber who advertised “a penny a shave.” Dr. Prideaux, one of the greatest scholars of all time, earned his way through college by scouring pots and pans. The late Judge Bradley worked his own way up from a charcoal burner to the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States. Yes, a a man can decide the size of his own bedside.

Notice furthermore that even giants must rest. Such enermous physical endowments on the part of King Og might suggest the capacity to stride across all fatigue and omit slumber. No. He required an iron bedstead. Giants must rest. Not appreciating that fact, how many of the giants yearly break down. Giants in business, giants in art, giants in eloSuence, giants, in usefulness. They ve not out more than half their days. They try to escape the consequence of over-work by a voyage across the sea or a sail in a summer yacht, or call on pbysicans for relief from insomnia or restoration of unstrung nerves or the arrest of apoplexies, when all they need is what the giant ©f my text resorted to—an irom bedstead.

Let no one think because he has great strength of body or mind that he can afford to trifle with his unusual gifts. The commercial world, the literary world, the artistic world, the political world, the religious world, are all the time aquake with the crash of falling giants. King Og, no doubt had a throne, but the Bible never mentions his throne. > King Og, no doubt, had a crown, but the Bible never mentions his crown. King Og, no doubt, had a scepter, but the Bible never mentions his scepter. Yet one of the largest verses of the Bible is taken up in describing his bedstead. Se God all up and down the Bible honors steep. Adam, with his head on a pillow of Edenic roses, has his slumber blest by a Divine gift of beautiful companionship. Jacob, with his head on a pillow ©f rock, has his sleep glorified with a ladder filled with descending and ascending angels. Christ, with a pillow made of the folded up coat of a fisherman, honors slumber in the back part of a storm-tossed boat. The only case of accident to bleep mentioned in the Bible was when Entvchus fell from a window during a sermon of Paul, who had preached until midnight, but that was not so much a condemnation of sleep so much as a censure pf long sermons. More Sleep is what the world wants. Economize in everything but sleep. Notice, furthermore, that God’s people on the way to Canaan need not be surprised if thev confront some sort of a giant. llad not the Israelitish host had trouble enough already? No! Red Sea not enough. Water famine not enongh, Opposition by enemies of ordinary stature not enough. They must meet Og, the giant of the iron bedstead. “Mine cubits was the length thereof and four cubits the breadth of it.”

Brethren, I have made up my mind that we will have to fight'all the way up to the Promised and. I used to think that after a while I would get into a time where irwould be smooth and easy , but the time does not come and it will never come in this world. By the time King Og is used up so that he can not get into his iron bed«§tead, some other giantof opposition looms up to dispute our way. Let us stop looking for an easy time and make it a thirty years’ war, or a sixty years’ war, or a hundred years’ w»i\ if we live so long. Do you know the name of the biggest giant that you can possibly meet —and you will meet him? He is not eleven feet high but one hundred feet high. His bedstead is as long as the continent. His name is doubt. His common food is infidel, books and skeptical lectures and who do not know whether the Bible is inspired at all or inspired in spots, 4nd Christians who are more infidel than Christian. You

will never reach the Promised Land unless you slay that giant. Kill Doubt or Doubt will kill you. How to overcome this giant?’ Pray for; faith, read everything that encourages feith, avoid as you would ship fever and small-pox the people who lack faith. { Another impression from my sermon: The march of the church can not be impeded by gigantie opposition. That Israelitish host led on by Moses was the church, and when Og, the giant (him of the iron bedstead), came out against him with another - host —a fresh host against one that seemed worn out —things must have looked bad for Israel. No account is given of the bedstead of Moses excopt that one in which he first slept —the cradle of aquatic vegetation on the Nile, where the wife of Chenephres, the King, found the floating babe, and,' having no babe of her own, adopted him. Moses of ordinary size against Og of extraordinary dimensions. Besides that, Og was backed up by sixty fortified citKy.nothing'but"'the desert that had worn him and his army into a group of undisciplined and exhausted stragglers. BuLthe Israelites triumphed. If you spell the name of Og backward you turn it into the word “Go,” and Og was truned backward and made to go. With Og’s downfall all the sixty cities surrendered. Nothing was left of the giant except his iron bedstead, which was kept in a museum at Rabbath to show how tall and stout he once was. Sq shall the last giant ol opposition in the Church’s march succumb. Not sixty cities captured, but all the cities. Not only on one side of Jordan,but on both sides of all the fivers. The day is coming. Hear it all ye who are doing something for theconquest of the world for God and the truth, the time will come when, as there was nothing left of Og, the giant, but the iron bedstead kept at Rabbath as a curiosity, there will be nothing left of the giants of iniquity except some thing for the relic hunters to examine. Which of the giants will be the last slain I know not, but there will be a museum somewhere to hold relics of what they once were. A rusted sword will be hung up—the only relic of the giant of war, A demijohn—the only relic of the giant of inebriation. A roulette ball —the only relic of the giant of Hazard. A pictured certificate of watered stock —the only relic of the giant of stock gambling. A broken knife—The only relic of the giant of assassination. A yellow copy of Tom Pains —the only relic of the giant of un belief. And that museum will do for the latef ages of the world what the iron bedstead at Rabbath did for the earlier ages. . t

Dolly (to visitor)—What is a fictitious character, Miss Green? Visitor —One that is made up, dear. Dolly—Are you a fictitious character? Pious Jake (with long-drawn face) —Are you interested, Miss Cora, in the heathen? Cora j(frankly)—Yes, Jake, always, and if I can be of any service to you let me know early some morning. Little Dick —The school is closed because so many children is sick. Mamma —They will probably be all* right again in a week or so. Little Dick (hopefully)—Perhaps the rest of us’ll be sick then. Tosser—Have a cigar, old boy. I’m afraid, though, these are not very good. In fact, they may be worse than those I gave yon last. Friend (in a burst of politeness) —Impossible, mv dear boy, Impossible! Spatts (to Miss Bunn) —Mabel, dove, I dote upon yon wildly. Miss Bunn —That’s all right, but don’t let, pappa know. He’s violently opposed to young men’s wild dotes. ‘■You know,” said the young man who wanted to elope, ‘‘that love laughs at locksmiths. ' “Yes,” she answered, “but it doesn’t go tnis time. All my jewelry is in the safety deposit vault and papa has the key.” Th« Ejai utd Health. Quite recently the influence of the eyes upon the general health has been attracting the attention' of specialists, and general practitioners are recognizing the manifold serious effects upon the whole system of faulty eyes, either from , born malformations, acquired weakness, or any deviation from the normal standard or disturbance of muscular harmony or balance. It is being established beyc-nd a -doubt that many cases of sick headache periodical headaches, a large number of hysterical or otherwise nervous unbalancings, many cases of epilepsy, and other serious functional disorders may be traced to eye disorder as the predisposing cause, needing but some species of over exertion—sight seeing, concentrated attention upon a speaker, intent gazing at music, or close study—to precipitate the onset, and produce an invalid in whom the eye is the last factor ts be accused of the mischief.